US asked Israel to probe death of Palestinian-American in Silwad, State Dept. says

The US has asked Israel to investigate the death of a Palestinian-American who reportedly succumbed to complications from smoke inhalation after trying to put out a fire set by Israeli settlers in the West Bank village of Silwad, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce says.

“We’ve called upon Israel to investigate each of these instances… We wait to see what those investigations will be, and that’s the case here,” Bruce says in response to a question from The Times of Israel on the matter during a State Department briefing.

Bruce is subsequently asked what the Trump administration’s position is on the status of the West Bank after US House Speaker Mike Johnson declared on a visit to the territory on Monday that “the mountains of Judea and Samaria” belong to the Jewish people.

“I’m not going to speak about the opinion of the government. And if there’s a policy regarding the status in any region of the world — certainly in the Middle East — I would wait to hear from Secretary Rubio and President Trump,” the State Department spokesperson responds.